Fronteras Desk has won national journalism awards and has been recognized by media from around the world for the quality of its work.

Fronteras Desk stories deal with the complex and controversial southwestern border with Mexico, including security, immigration, and the smuggling of drugs, weapons and people. We also seek to show that the border is far more than a smuggling corridor but is also a unique region featuring transformative demographic change. Our mandate is to broadcast and publish stories from across the Southwest that go beyond breaking news and the sensational to find the people and stories that are real, relevant and alive.

Fronteras Desk is committed to exploring parts of the country and the world off the radar screens of most media. Our reporters regularly travel to northern Mexico, deep into rural Native American reservations, and as far away as Guatemala. These efforts have helped inform listeners across the region how their communities are changing.

Established in 2010, with funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) as part of its Local Journalism Center initiative, the Fronteras Desk was originally led jointly by KJZZ Phoenix and KBPS San Diego. Currently the Fronteras Desk continues as a content-sharing platform supported by the operational expenses of each contributing station and sustaining partners.

Besides reaching a diverse audience through radio, television and online, our stories regularly appear in other media, including Marketplace, NPR, PBS Newshour, PRI's The World, and the BBC and Here and Now. These efforts show that Fronteras is helping set the news agenda for the Southwest.